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Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Battles in Middle Earth - Hunt for the Troll King

Finally some bad guys to kill play!

This is another Lord of the Rings (The Hobbit) SBG from a little while ago, so again details may be sketchy but you can always enjoy the pics! (Some better than others unfortunately :-/ ) Eric and I had found a free Sunday on our schedules so we could watch The Hobbit: AUJ Extended Version and throw some dice too. I was hoping to give my Easterlings a go, but Eric had just cranked out some marvelous looking goblins and working on some trolls, so Dwarves seemed more appropriate.

Eric brought Buhrdur and two other trolls, 27 Moria
Goblins including two Goblin Captains plus a goblin Shaman, and a
Ring Wraith (Dwimmerlaik) for good evil measure. Although not totally finished painting for this battle, he had done a bit of converting on the trolls to make them more like Hill Trolls. On Buhrdur he had even crafted a make shift crown out of swords etc., and thus helped supply the inspiration for the scenario we tried.

Buhrdur had declared himself "King of the Hill" or something, and started gathering a troublesome band of Goblin and Troll followers in the North. Out of the Blue Mountains I had band of about 30+ Dwarves that also included a Dwarf King, Balin, a Captain, a Ballista, some Khazad Guard, and a bunch of warriors that was sent to deal with the growing threat before someone got too big for his britches.

Always fun setting up the field for a skirmish game. We used my
mountain terrain again and added a keep along with some walls and
statues. The Dwarves would have to scour the spooky keep in Arnor for the dreaded Buhrdur and his followers, and there was also the hidden threat of the Dwimmerlaik who was making
rounds for the Dark Lord. Again, the Dwarves had come prepared with Balista in case
the door (or some trolls) needed to be knocked down.

We tried to replicate a Dwarven patrol sent to root all the nasties in
the area by using the Aragorn's Revenge scenario
out of The Ruin of Arnor sourcebook. We started all the bad guys in
hiding, but we messed it up from the get go since the "patrol" was
supposed to be a small force finding each group of Goblins etc. one at a
time. After "triggering" the first evil warband we decided just to
unveil all of them and battle it out normally.

I remember that my Dwarves had no problem wiping out the first evil warband, and that my Ballista was pretty ineffective all game. The Dwimmerlaik made things annoying for my heroes while Buhrdur and his troll pal maneuvered in to put the crunch on Balin. The rest of the Dwarves started to converge feeling confident now in their superior numbers.

By this time the scenarios was screwed anyway and it was just about rolling some dice and getting more comfortable with the new "Hobbit" rules. Even so, I knew that Buhrdur was my logical target, but hadn't realized the bad guys could win if they killed my leader as well. Although technically the Dwarf King was my "leader," Eric's trolls triumphantly tore poor Balin in two, and we ended the game there. All in all, together with some dark beer and fine whiskey the day was full of good times. :-)

To finish off, here's a shot of Eric's finished Trolls along some of their Warhammer cousins that he spruced up at the same time.

Having played a good amount of game since this battle I definitely love the new Hobbit Monster rules. Picking up a man and throwing him at his fellow warriors is pretty entertaining... for the Troll at least. :)

Really enjoying your LOTR stuff. Great game and scenario, I like that idea.Awesome job on those trolls love the conversion work.The WFB ones are nicely painted too, but not to my taste really - too cartoon-like...

Welcome!

This is my lighthearted blog for all things that relate in some way to my wargaming hobby. Everything from military history to science fiction and fantasy.

I've been playing with toy soldiers since I was a wee lad and they have sparked my imagination ever since. I hope you enjoy your time on "Der Feldmarschall," and don't be afraid to leave a comment or two behind. :-)